1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and a printing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been printing systems including upper level apparatuses producing image data and printing apparatuses printing the image data produced by the upper level apparatuses. For example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-287519.
In typical printing apparatuses including printer controllers transferring image data and printer engines outputting images based on the image data transferred from the printer controllers, the printer controllers and the printer engines are coupled with data lines for transferring the image data and control lines for transmitting and receiving control signals. For example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-254763.
If the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-254763 is applied to the printing system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-287519, image data and control signals could be exchanged in parallel between the upper level apparatus and the printing apparatus. As a result, the image data can be printed at a high speed and printing productivity can be increased.
When printing productivity needs to be further increased in such a printing system, a mechanism related to image output may be added. However, the addition of another mechanism complicates the control of data transfer from the upper level apparatus to the printing apparatus.
Therefore, there is a need for a printing apparatus and a printing method that can further increase printing productivity by simple control.